Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors

Manuscript Submission

Manuscript Submission

Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

Permissions

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Online Submission

Please follow the hyperlink “Submit online” on the right and upload all of your manuscript files following the instructions given on the screen.

Cover letter: mandatory

All submissions should be accompanied by a cover letter which should include:

What is the scientific question you are addressing?

What are the key findings that answer this question?

Why is this work important and timely?

Why is it of interest to the international readership of WETLANDS?

Article Types

The word count should include title, abstract, keywords, body of the text, figures, and tables but excluding authors affiliations, references and on-line supplementary material.

Original research (5,000-7,000): Articles reporting original research about wetlands, natural or constructed, including, but not limited to mechanisms underlying ecosystem processes, the values of wetlands to society, their management, quality assessment and restoration.

Short communications (2,000-3,000): Short articles in the same format as ‘Original Research’ articles reporting on new findings that are deemed to be potentially very important or timely, but do not require a full-size article. Short communications should not be used for reporting preliminary data.

Review article (6,000): Articles summarizing past and recent research on a subject relevant to wetland science and management, often to synthesize over-arching patterns or opinions. The subject and content should be discussed with the Editor-in-Chief (NDSU.wetlands.editor@ndsu.edu) prior to submission.

Invited reviews (8,000): The Mark Brinson Review series was initiated in 2013 and aims to bring together in-depth, over-arching reviews in the fields of wetland science and management, in the widest sense of those terms. These reviews may synthesize observations over long periods of time or may pull together information from various studies to form an opinion. They are either invited, may be regular reviews that are recognized by the Editorial Board of the journal as important enough to be part of the series, or intending authors may contact the Editor-in-Chief.

In exceptional cases longer articles may be submitted, but only after consultation with the Editor in Chief.

Title page

The title page should include:

The name(s) of the author(s)

A concise and informative title

The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)

The e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author

Abstract

Please provide an abstract of maximum 200 words. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.

Keywords

Please provide 4 to 6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.

Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.

Footnotes

Footnotes on the title page are not given reference symbols. Footnotes to the text are numbered consecutively; those to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other

statistical data).

Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include the citation of a reference included in the reference list. They should not consist solely of a reference citation, and they should never include the bibliographic

details of a reference. They should also not contain any figures or tables.

Footnotes to the text are numbered consecutively; those to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data). Footnotes to the title or the authors of the article are not given reference symbols.

Always use footnotes instead of endnotes.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the reference list. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.

References

Citations within the text, they should be cited chronologically (oldest to newest),

The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text.

Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a reference list.

Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last names of the first author of each work. All journal names must be written out in full.

Combination Art

Color Art

Color art is free of charge for online publication.

If black and white will be shown in the print version, make sure that the main information will still be visible. Many colors are not distinguishable from one another when converted to black and white. A simple way to check this is to make a xerographic copy to see if the necessary distinctions between the different colors are still apparent.

If the figures will be printed in black and white, do not refer to color in the captions.

Color illustrations should be submitted as RGB (8 bits per channel).

Figure Lettering

To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans serif fonts).

Figure Captions

Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.

Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.

No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption.

Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.

Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.

Figure Placement and Size

Figures should be submitted separately from the text, if possible.

When preparing your figures, size figures to fit in the column width.

For most journals the figures should be 39 mm, 84 mm, 129 mm, or 174 mm wide and not higher than 234 mm.

For books and book-sized journals, the figures should be 80 mm or 122 mm wide and not higher than 198 mm.

Permissions

If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format. Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic rights for free and that Springer will not be able to refund any costs that may have occurred to receive these permissions. In such cases, material from other sources should be used.

Accessibility

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your figures, please make sure that

All figures have descriptive captions (blind users could then use a text-to-speech software or a text-to-Braille hardware)

Patterns are used instead of or in addition to colors for conveying information (colorblind users would then be able to distinguish the visual elements)

Any figure lettering has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1

Electronic Supplementary Material

Springer accepts electronic multimedia files (animations, movies, audio, etc.) and other supplementary files to be published online along with an article or a book chapter. This feature can add dimension to the author's article, as certain information cannot be printed or is more convenient in electronic form.

Before submitting research datasets as electronic supplementary material, authors should read the journal’s Research data policy. We encourage research data to be archived in data repositories wherever possible.

Submission

Supply all supplementary material in standard file formats.

Please include in each file the following information: article title, journal name, author names; affiliation and e-mail address of the corresponding author.

To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized files may require very long download times and that some users may experience other problems during downloading.

Audio, Video, and Animations

Text and Presentations

Submit your material in PDF format; .doc or .ppt files are not suitable for long-term viability.

A collection of figures may also be combined in a PDF file.

Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets should be submitted as .csv or .xlsx files (MS Excel).

Specialized Formats

Specialized format such as .pdb (chemical), .wrl (VRML), .nb (Mathematica notebook), and .tex can also be supplied.

Collecting Multiple Files

It is possible to collect multiple files in a .zip or .gz file.

Numbering

If supplying any supplementary material, the text must make specific mention of the material as a citation, similar to that of figures and tables.

Refer to the supplementary files as “Online Resource”, e.g., "... as shown in the animation (Online Resource 3)", “... additional data are given in Online Resource 4”.

Name the files consecutively, e.g. “ESM_3.mpg”, “ESM_4.pdf”.

Captions

For each supplementary material, please supply a concise caption describing the content of the file.

Processing of supplementary files

Electronic supplementary material will be published as received from the author without any conversion, editing, or reformatting.

Accessibility

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your supplementary files, please make sure that

The manuscript contains a descriptive caption for each supplementary material

Video files do not contain anything that flashes more than three times per second (so that users prone to seizures caused by such effects are not put at risk)

English Language Editing

For editors and reviewers to accurately assess the work presented in your manuscript you need to ensure the English language is of sufficient quality to be understood. If you need help with writing in English you should consider:

Asking a colleague who is a native English speaker to review your manuscript for clarity.

Visiting the English language tutorial which covers the common mistakes when writing in English.

Using a professional language editing service where editors will improve the English to ensure that your meaning is clear and identify problems that require your review. Two such services are provided by our affiliates Nature Research Editing Service and American Journal Experts. Springer authors are entitled to a 10% discount on their first submission to either of these services, simply follow the links below.

Please note that the use of a language editing service is not a requirement for publication in this journal and does not imply or guarantee that the article will be selected for peer review or accepted.

If your manuscript is accepted it will be checked by our copyeditors for spelling and formal style before publication.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavour. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation can be achieved by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include:

The manuscript has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.

The manuscript has not been published previously (partly or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work (please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the hint of text-recycling (“self-plagiarism”)).

A single study is not split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (e.g. “salami-publishing”).

No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images) to support your conclusions

No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (“plagiarism”). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions are secured for material that is copyrighted.

Important note: the journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.

Consent to submit has been received explicitly from all co-authors, as well as from the responsible authorities - tacitly or explicitly - at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out, before the work is submitted.

Authors whose names appear on the submission have contributed sufficiently to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.

Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, corresponding author, and order of authors at submission. Changes of authorship or in the order of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.

Adding and/or deleting authors and/or changing the order of authors at revision stage may be justifiably warranted. A letter must accompany the revised manuscript to explain the reason for the change(s) and the contribution role(s) of the added and/or deleted author(s). Further documentation may be required to support your request.

Requests for addition or removal of authors as a result of authorship disputes after acceptance are honored after formal notification by the institute or independent body and/or when there is agreement between all authors.

Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential proprietary data is excluded.

If there is a suspicion of misconduct, the journal will carry out an investigation following the COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, the allegation seems to raise valid concerns, the accused author will be contacted and given an opportunity to address the issue. If misconduct has been established beyond reasonable doubt, this may result in the Editor-in-Chief’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

If the article is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.

If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction, either an erratum will be placed with the article or in severe cases complete retraction of the article will occur. The reason must be given in the published erratum or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the paper is maintained on the platform, watermarked "retracted" and explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.

The author’s institution may be informed.

Research Data Policy

A submission to the journal implies that materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, will be freely available to any researcher wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without breaching participant confidentiality.

The journal strongly encourages that all datasets on which the conclusions of the paper rely should be available to readers. We encourage authors to ensure that their datasets are either deposited in publicly available repositories (where available and appropriate) or presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files whenever possible. Please see Springer Nature’s information on recommended repositories.

General repositories - for all types of research data - such as figshare and Dryad may be used where appropriate.

Datasets that are assigned digital object identifiers (DOIs) by a data repository may be cited in the reference list. Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite: authors, title, publisher (repository name), identifier.

Where a widely established research community expectation for data archiving in public repositories exists, submission to a community-endorsed, public repository is mandatory. Persistent identifiers (such as DOIs and accession numbers) for relevant datasets must be provided in the paper

For the following types of data set, submission to a community-endorsed, public repository is mandatory:

Data availability

The journal encourages authors to provide a statement of Data availability in their article. Data availability statements should include information on where data supporting the results reported in the article can be found, including, where applicable, hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. Data availability statements can also indicate whether data are available on request from the authors and where no data are available, if appropriate.

Data Availability statements can take one of the following forms (or a combination of more than one if required for multiple datasets):

1. The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS]

2. The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLIC] but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

3. The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

4. Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

5. All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files].

More examples of template data availability statements, which include examples of openly available and restricted access datasets, are available:

This service provides advice on research data policy compliance and on finding research data repositories. It is independent of journal, book and conference proceedings editorial offices and does not advise on specific manuscripts.

After Acceptance

Upon acceptance of your article you will receive a link to the special Author Query Application at Springer’s web page where you can sign the Copyright Transfer Statement online and indicate whether you wish to order OpenChoice and offprints.

Once the Author Query Application has been completed, your article will be processed and you will receive the proofs.

Copyright transfer

Authors will be asked to transfer copyright of the article to the Publisher (or grant the Publisher exclusive publication and dissemination rights). This will ensure the widest possible protection and dissemination of information under copyright laws.

Offprints

Offprints can be ordered by the corresponding author.

Color illustrations

Publication of color illustrations is free of charge.

Proof reading

The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the Editor.

After online publication, further changes can only be made in the form of an Erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the article.

Online First

The article will be published online after receipt of the corrected proofs. This is the official first publication citable with the DOI. After release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited by issue and page numbers.

Open Choice

In addition to the normal publication process (whereby an article is submitted to the journal and access to that article is granted to customers who have purchased a subscription), Springer provides an alternative publishing option: Springer Open Choice. A Springer Open Choice article receives all the benefits of a regular subscription-based article, but in addition is made available publicly through Springer’s online platform SpringerLink.

Copyright and license term – CC BY

Open Choice articles do not require transfer of copyright as the copyright remains with the author. In opting for open access, the author(s) agree to publish the article under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Read this Journal on Springerlink

For authors and editors

Aims and Scope

Wetlands is an international journal concerned with all aspects of wetlands biology, ecology, hydrology, water chemistry, soil and sediment characteristics, management, and laws and regulations. The journal is published 6 times per year, with the goal of centralizing the publication of pioneering wetlands work that has otherwise been spread among a myriad of journals. Since wetlands research usually requires an interdisciplinary approach, the journal in not limited to specific disciplines but seeks manuscripts reporting research results from all relevant disciplines. Manuscripts focusing on management topics and regulatory considerations relevant to wetlands are also suitable. Submissions may be in the form of articles or short notes. Timely review articles will also be considered, but the subject and content should be discussed with the Editor-in-Chief (NDSU.wetlands.editor@ndsu.edu) prior to submission. All papers published in Wetlands are reviewed by two qualified peers, an Associate Editor, and the Editor-in-Chief prior to acceptance and publication. All papers must present new information, must be factual and original, and must not have been published elsewhere.